And on a micro level, more student debt means fewer options for graduates. If you have more debt, you are more likely to take a job with a steady employer than work at a new firm or start your own company.

Less spending on a macro level, and less risk taking on a micro level, means less economic growth overall. In other words, student debt is a major drag on the economy.

How is this President Obama's fault?

For starters, Obama has presided over the weakest economic recovery since the Great Depression. His Keynesian deficit spending failed to stimulate the economy, and instead of making it easier for businesses to hire people by lowering the cost of employment, he made hiring more expensive through a slew of new federal mandates and regulations, including Obamacare's employer mandate.

This is why the unemployment rate keeps falling despite the fact that the number of Americans with jobs still has not recovered from pre-recession levels. Younger Americans are borrowing money to exit the job market and go back to school.

Looking ahead, if our nation's colleges and graduate schools are teaching valuable and marketable skills, then maybe this generation of students will eventually recover.

But if young Americans are just sitting on the economic sidelines, and gathering a mountain of student debt in the process, then the Obama presidency will be a slow motion disaster for decades to come.